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Indie Author Spotlight – The Secret by Karen Mossman

The Indie Author Spotlight is back! This week we shine the light on Karen Mossman and her book, “The Secret”

The Secret by Karen Mossman

This book is **Free** May 25th-26th-27th! Get your copy at Mybook.to/TS

Kerry O’Brien has a secret so terrible it burns inside her. All she wants is to be part of a normal family, but with a stepfather like Bill, that is impossible.

Set in the 1970s when secrets like this were only ever whispered about, Kerry somehow keeps her humour by pretending everything is fine. Then she meets biker Tommy, and he has his own secret; one that impacts on her.
Kerry’s secret becomes harder to keep and the tell-tell signs harder to hide. Can she keep it together? Can Tommy and Kerry get it together?

Then the worst happens and Kerry’s secret is a secret no more.

Excerpt from the book
‘This is where I work,” he said, as we entered a joiner’s workshop. I could see half built furniture with lots of wood shavings on the floor and various types of cutting equipment. We walked over to one half built piece of furniture.
“This is mine,” he said. “I’m working on it at the moment.” It was wardrobe and it hadn’t got any doors.
“How on earth do you make these?” I asked running my finger through a pattern in the wood.
“With this, it’s called a router.” He held up some kind of tool. “Just look inside here,” he said, indicating inside of the wardrobe.
I peered just behind where the door would be, and saw he’d scraped TS 74 in the wood. “Oh yeah.”
“We all like to mark them somewhere. So should you ever buy a wardrobe, take a look inside, it might be one of mine.”
I grinned. “You’ll be famous.”
He laughed. “Come on, we’ll go into the tea room.”
We went up some stairs and into a big kitchen. There was a table in the centre and on it were mugs and some still contained tea that had gone cold and congealed. I pulled a face.
“I know,” he said as if reading my mind. “We’re a mucky lot.” He began clearing it piling it into a dirty looking sink.
Kitchen cupboards snaked around the sides of the room, both on the wall and beneath the counter. Some of the doors didn’t appear to fit properly and some didn’t even have doors. There was a fridge, but there was also a bottle of milk standing on the top, it’s contents half empty and I just had the feeling I wouldn’t want to drink it. In fact, everything looked grubby.
“I would offer you a brew…”
I laughed, “Not a chance, some of those cups look like they’ve never been washed.”
“Come over here,” he said, standing by the table.
“Why?” I asked a little dubiously.
“I want you to lie on it.”
I frowned, “Why?”
He looked at me with mischievous eyes and my pulse quickened. “I want to draw you.”
Draw me? I didn’t expect that. Was I disappointed? Did I think he was going to make mad passionate love to me right there on that table top?
I managed to giggle and stood on the chair, then onto the table and lay down, feeling a bit silly. I let him manoeuvre me into position and felt even sillier.
“Relax, Kerry.”
“Do you know how hard this table is?”
He pulled out a chair and sat down a little way from the me. Producing a sketchpad from somewhere, he began to draw.
“Well, this is nice,” I said, feeling the back of my head on the edge of the table as I peered at the ceiling and my hair hung down towards the floor.
“You’ve no idea,” he said, glancing up at me and then down to the sketchpad as his pencil moving quickly.
“Hmm, I wonder what’s for tea tonight. Wood chips? Or wardrobe sausage?” I pondered.
“Keep still.”
“I am still; in fact I’m so still you can hardly tell I’m breathing.”
“Your mouth is moving.”
“Can you draw an open mouth?” I puckered it.
“Not in the way you mean, shut up a minute.”
I mentally counted to 60 and then said, “My back is aching.”
“Okay,” he said, standing up and snapping the pad closed. “Finished.”
“Can I see it?”
“No, you can’t, I need to finish it first.”
“I thought you just said you’d finished.”
“Hmm,” I loved the rumble sound his voice made. “These are just the bare bones,” he said with a grin. “I’ve to fill it in yet.”
“God!” I huffed, feigning annoyance. “I’ve been called many things, but bare bones!”
He swatted my bum with his hand. “You’ll see it, eventually.”
We were laughing as we made our way back outside to his bike. Is this too soon to fall it love? Because I was falling right over!’

What the readers are saying:

The story is gripping and interesting, the romance warm and simmering. I absolutely loved the ending, which gives the story an almost fairy tale-like feeling. All in all, it was a very enjoyable two hour read, and I whole heartedly recommend it to fans of the genre.
S Anderson

I really enjoyed this book and I was automatically drawn into the characters world, from the very first page. Tommy treats Kerry like a queen and it’s so refreshing to read a story where the man respects and truly loves the girl.
Jenna Hodge

The way this author wrote about one family’s life in 1970 Manchester was authentic and enjoyable. I enjoyed being lost in nostalgia for a short time and wallowing in the memories of that era’s music and singers. The well-developed characters seemed realistic and the places were vividly described.
Amazon Customer

About the author

Karen J Mossman lives in Anglesey in Wales with her husband. She had written 4 books, three themed short story collections, The Missing, Behind The Music, Heroes and Joanna’s Journey, a novel set in the 1980s.